cocoaeyesthestitcher is a blog where I share my creative exploration of my world and my art making.

I’m fortunate enough to have many amazing, talented friends,
both online and in 3D. Some of the coolest and most creative folks I know are fellow members of a fiber
arts group called String Thing. Based in Durham, NC, we are a motley collection
textile artists, spinners, weavers, knitwear designers, quilters and hobbyist knitters.

Sarah modeling her luminous 99 Names of God shawl.

Knitwear designer extraordinaire Sarah Sipe is one of that ultra talented crew. When I saw this immensely beautiful circular shawl she designed,
I was blown away.

In the midst of the gorgeous lace are delicate glass beads
in a mysterious series of patterns. What are those patterns? They are the 99
Names of God that Sarah translated into code. (Anyone who knows me know that I adore codes.) There is an almost alchemical magic to this shawl.

Mandala on Sarah's back.

For more about how she created this stunner, please read on.

Please describe the 99 Names of God scarf to us?

The 99 Names/Attributes of God are a Muslim
devotional. The 99 names are said to be different characteristics of Allah
which are meant to show all of God’s facets. It takes all of these attributes
to come close to describing Allah (which is NOT one of the 99 attributes.) The
99 names are not codified. I chose a list off of
wikipedia, which is very
similar to the list of 99 on a print in my house.

The shawl is based off the Elizabeth Zimmerman Pi Shawl
design, which creates a circular shawl by doubling the number of stitches on an
increasingly large repeat of rows. I charted out my names and plugged them into
the rows.

Each beaded pattern represents a coded name of god.

What was the inspiration for the scarf?

Naomi (a fellow String Thing member) was working with a friend on coding a Hebrew prayer
into her Secret Code. At the same time, a group
I'm in on Ravelry was running a Knit-A-Long of a pattern called Celestarium,
which is a circular shawl that maps out the night sky as seen in the Northern
Hemisphere. I was totally geeked out by both, and decided to combine all of my
interests into one completely insane idea, combining a circular shawl, Arabic,
and beads.

Taken from a "hamsa," (also known "Hand of Fatima")detail of the lace edging.

Can you give us an example of one of the names of God and
how you translated it into code and then the knit pattern?

Each name begins with “al”, which simply means “the” in
English. Thus, for example, one of the 99 attributes is “al-Rahman,” the Most
Compassionate. I removed the “al” from each name, instead chosing to make a
visual representation in the center of the shawl – in Arabic, “al” appears to
look like two lines next to each other, making my center mandala look like four
sets of “al”. Removing the “al” from each name made it so that each, rendered
in Abjad numerals (each letter is assigned a number), tended to be less than 10
digits across. I made each name into a grid. “al-Rahman,” minus the “al,”
becomes 200, 8, 40, 50.

An example of Sarah's magical code.I want to stitch it!

And then the math came in. The center mandala increases to
48 stitches by row 12. Row 13 begins the name charts, 5 in the first section,
10 in the next two sections, 20 in the next four, until I ran out in the final
section. The lace on the edge is meant to look like a hamsa (also known as the
Hand of Fatima), a symbol of protection used throughout the Middle East.

As a knitwear designer, what are your favorite things to
design? What inspires you to sit down a create your own patterns? For example,
the natural world? Things you see in films? Books? How long have you been
knitting, spinning, designing patterns?

I love designing shawls, especially shawls with secret
meanings. My favorite published design is my Bull City Scarf, which has a
hidden "D" for Durham in the lace. I find myself especially inspired
by the city of Durham - everything from the shapes of the buildings downtown to
the Eno flowing through my backyard. I'm also more than a little geeked by
putting math into use in knitting.

************So inspiring!!You can purchase Sarah's designs on ravelry. I'm not a knitter, but I adore her Piedmont Slouch Hat (yes, that is a photo of me modeling the purple one.)Big Yes to the insanely talented Sarah!"Big Yes!" is a blog feature where I share, with the artist’s permission, a piece of textile art that has opened my eyes to the possibility of what we can create. When faced with things that are truly beautiful or moving or that fill me with awe, I try to say yes. More than that, Big Yes.